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We fly out tomorrow morning, my first flight with a rigid chair. Hypothetically, if my chair was broken beyond use upon landing, what is the airline's legal requirement in terms of me getting by for the rest of the trip? It's not like I can just go out and buy another tilite that day.

Remember what I said dont over think it and dont print anything the airlines are not the bad guy.

A big part is on your shoulders by explaining your chair, how it works and most will not be familiar with your wheels so take time and explain.

Make sure your chair is tagged to bring to the plane vs claim at baggage.

Once the chair is brought to the Jetway get in and test it.

If there is something wrong go down to baggage claim and have them fill out a report, you will get a copy and you can use who ever you want to do the repair.

If you want to try and find someone there that knows the tires and wheels go for it.

If you needed a rental or even a power chair in place of yours you can set that up too.

We just landed and my right caster is not touching the ground. I do not know what has caused this but we will be going to baggage claims once we land on our final leg. I don't have insurance so I bought this chair used, therefore I don't have a DME or ATP I can send it to get evaluated for damage. Does anyone know how I can go about this?

rockbybay, I'm very sorry to hear that. Hopefully you did an inspection prior to the flight and the airline did not give you too much trouble. If your caster is not on the ground, that means either the frame was bent or if you have adjustable positioning it slid to the wrong place. If it is a frame issue, immediately demand a new chair. On top of that, and I am not exaggerating, ask for all new components as well. If something hit your chair hard enough to bend the metal frame, who knows what damage was done to the rear wheels, casters, all bearings, and all the joints that hold the back and seat pan.

This will be your opportunity to work with a DME (they'll find one local to you) and get a brand new chair made specifically for you. DO NOT ACCEPT ANYTHING LESS THAN A NEW CHAIR! They may pull a "you bought it used, we won't replace" BS, but keep reminding them they have deprived you of your mobility and independence!

We just landed and my right caster is not touching the ground. I do not know what has caused this but we will be going to baggage claims once we land on our final leg. I don't have insurance so I bought this chair used, therefore I don't have a DME or ATP I can send it to get evaluated for damage. Does anyone know how I can go about this?

You should have filled out the report on the leg of your trip where the damage is caused.

If you dont have a DME ask the airlines who they use and explain you need it fixed asap for your convention.

See if the DME can come to the hotel.

Have you reached out the manufacture for someone in the area where your at that can repair.

Remember parts can be over nighted its the airlines plus you dont need to mention parts or wheels are used.

Thanks for the great responses. We filed the claim upon landing at our destination. The lady was very nice and said that we have two options, use the company Delta uses, Scootaround or use a DME and maybe Delta will reimburse if we use a DME. Before hearing this I had contacted a highly recommended local DME and I would much rather use them than Scootaround. From looking at Scootaround's website, they mainly deal with hospital type chairs. I'm worried that they're not knowledgable enough to find the root cause of the problem and will just adjust the caster angel to get the caster to sit on the ground without ensuring that the chair frame is sound. Any thoughts? The fact that Delta may not reimburse if we use a DME scares me.

Thanks for the great responses. We filed the claim upon landing at our destination. The lady was very nice and said that we have two options, use the company Delta uses, Scootaround or use a DME and maybe Delta will reimburse if we use a DME. Before hearing this I had contacted a highly recommended local DME and I would much rather use them than Scootaround. From looking at Scootaround's website, they mainly deal with hospital type chairs. I'm worried that they're not knowledgable enough to find the root cause of the problem and will just adjust the caster angel to get the caster to sit on the ground without ensuring that the chair frame is sound. Any thoughts? The fact that Delta may not reimburse if we use a DME scares me.

Did you reach out to the manufacture to see who they would recommend in your area? Scootaround is more of a rental company so they may not know how to work on those motors and wheels and would use a 3rd party company to fix them.

One thing you will want to do is once you find a place that knows how to fix them be there and learn everything you can about them so if they break you can trouble shoot the issue next time.

The law requires you to use who ever you want and the airlines has to pick up the cost.

Sorry for going AWOL, we landed, realized the power assist wheels had been broken on our return flight and I wen't right into tech for my current show, it's been crazy.
I just wanted to update everyone on what's been going on. Scootaround subcontracted to Numotion (for the frame bend) and a local (very well known and recommended) DME for the twion wheels. The twion wheels should be fixed next Wednesday. The frame bend is a little more complicated. The guy from Numotion ordered new forks and housing but as that didn't fix the issue he recommended a new frame was ordered. When talking to me at the appointemtn he was using the term new chair so I was under the impression that I would be getting everything on the frame and the frame replaced. Apparently he only meant the frame. I had quite a few concerns with that as I've made quite a few changes to this chair and it's nothing like the chair on the serial number (new camber tube, brackets for twion wheels, new casters, push handles, ect.). Also, he never inspected the entirety of the chair. He just looked at the front. Not to mention this guy didn't even know how to adjust or check the caster fork angle, I had to show him. If the titanium frame was bent, who knows what other damage has been done on the rest of the chair. I've been playing phone tag with scootaround and numotion for the past two weeks trying to get this sorted. Numotion already ordered the frame without my approval and that's set to arrive on the 14th. Am I right to insist someone else come and look?

TLDR; My chair was broken twice on one trip and the technician who came out doesn't know the front end of a chair from the back

Sorry for going AWOL, we landed, realized the power assist wheels had been broken on our return flight and I wen't right into tech for my current show, it's been crazy. . Am I right to insist someone else come and look?

TLDR; My chair was broken twice on one trip and the technician who came out doesn't know the front end of a chair from the back

Yes, you ar right to insist on more. In addition You should insist on all new components because it is unlikely the chair will run smoothly with your old components, given the damage. Do not act 'reasonable'. Act like you know the ropes and this is, unfortunately, the only way to handle the damage. I would not even discuss the history of the chair with them.

I'm with Tetra. I lost a chair to Southwest (the right front caster was basically folded under) in 2017. They wanted to just replaced the frame, but I was adamant that I would accept nothing less than a complete replacement. If whatever happened was bad enough to fold an aluminum frame who knows what it did to the rest of the components. Also, like you, I had done a number of upgrades to the chair that were no associated with the Serial Number. I demanded all those components replaced as well. I'll warn you it ended up taking around 6 months and the DME screwed up every single component they installed (I am not exaggerating, I had to fix every single screw and component they installed down to the foot plate screws not being tight enough so it very slowly slid out to the point where it caught my ramp while I was going down and dumped me in the parking lot.) so I ended up having to build the chair myself. If you are capable enough, I recommend asking for the components and assembling yourself to limit the screw-ups on the DME's part. If not, I would find a friend who has half a brain as they'll likely be better than the tech the DME sends out to assemble or fix problems you find. It was a truly infuriating process on the side of the DME. The airline did not give me too much hassle and paid for all the components I told them (as well as some upgrades, refunding my ticket, and a flight voucher for the DME screw-ups) but I'll likely pay of of pocket for my next chair to get the components correct the first time rather than dealing with a DME. I live in Maryland and have used 3 different DMEs for the three chairs I have gotten since being in the chair and each has proved more incompetent than the last.

After my last post (and dozens of phone calls with numotion and scootaround), I was so tired of all of this that I let them take my chair and put the new frame and forks on. All looked good until I got home. After rolling from the parking lot to the car and then from the car into my house the forks were at extreme angles. They were both toed out and tilted back. I wish I could figure out how to put photos on here because it's like nothing I've ever seen before. Coincidentally my scootaround agent called me as I was checking everything and I said that this was unacceptable and I need my claim to be moved over to my regular DME. My DME saw me the next week and was appalled (but not surprised) that numotion didn't just order a whole new chair. After getting approval from Delta my DME ordered me my new chair which arrived last week. I'm on vacation so I can't pick it up for a few more weeks but I just got at call from my DME saying that scootaround/delta may want the frame and the forks from numotion's mess up. Numotion already threw away the bent frame and forks without asking me. The main silver lining I found in this situation was that I would now have an everyday chair (the new chair that just arrived) and a travel chair (the numotion frame and my own parts) that can be used with a freewheel. Now that safety may be taken away and I don't know what to do.

The SCI-Nurses are advanced practice nurses specializing in SCI/D care. They are available to answer questions, provide education, and make suggestions which you should always discuss with your physician/primary health care provider before implementing. Medical diagnosis is not provided, nor do the SCI-Nurses provide nursing or medical care through their responses on the CareCure forums.